By Darragh McDonagh

Some 220 frontline jobs under threat at Galway University Hospitals (GUH) have been saved during negotiations between trade unions and the HSE but union officials have warned that “uproar” is inevitable at upcoming health service cuts.

Talks across the HSE West region remained on a knife edge last night ahead of today’s deadline, when alternative cost-saving proposals will come before senior health service management in Dublin.

As much as €40m in savings has been identified by unions in areas other than frontline jobs and services during the negotiations. But HSE West’s budget deficit looks set to grow to €90m by the end of the year.Union officials have predicted that there will be “uproar” in coming months as the HSE seeks to unilaterally eliminate a further €50m from its budget overrun with a range of punitive health cuts.

Rolling theatre closures, a downgrading of orthopaedic services at Merlin Park Hospital and the closure of a children’s residential home in Galway city are understood to be among the plans to cut costs.

Colm Keaveney, SIPTU organiser for the West of Ireland, hailed the retention of 220 frontline jobs at GUH as a success but said that job losses elsewhere in the area could not be discounted and there was still much pain in the pipeline for patients.

“Certainly, the whole €90m deficit will not be tackled but we have secured around €40m in savings during the talks, reducing the overrun to €50m. That represents very good progress in the space of a fortnight,” he said.

“There will inevitably be uproar over the decisions that the HSE will now have to make. There will be ward closures, reconfiguration of services and the removal of duplication of services in the region between now and the end of the year.”

Read more in this week's Connacht Sentinel